According to this report from the Courthouse News Service, California Controller John Chiang is suing SAP Public Services (SAP), a company with which the state of California had contracted for payroll services software (MyCalPAYS) that would assist California in managing payments to its 240,000 employees. After three years of development and eight months of trials, California alleges that SAP still has not managed to get the system to work.

The system was projected to cost California taxpayers just over $100 million, but by the time it was cancelled, it had cost $260 million and never worked right, according to the state. The state claims that MyCalPAYS was tried out on a test goup, and the results were disastrous: overpayments, underpayments, failures to report deposits in retirement accounts, childcare payments and medical contributions. Although the state complained before declaring SAP to be in default, SAP contended that the system was working as designed.

As Courthouse News Service reports, California encounered similar problems when it contracted with software developer Deloitte to manage its statewide judicial case management system.